Harnessing the digital potential of locations and enhancing customer experience, MEXIA Interactive provides industry-leading curb-to-gate analytics. President and CEO Glenn Tinley discusses the company’s new and updated SMRT Sensors, and how airports can build connectivity for the Internet of Things.
Can you give me a bit of background about the company?
Glenn Tinley: MEXIA Interactive began working on indoor location analytics in 2012. Since then we’ve evolved to provide a platform of technologies in what has become the Internet of Things (IoT). We have engineered the multiple technologies that are utilised within indoor spaces onto one device that we call the SMRT Sensor (standing for the see, measure, respond and track process). We are the only company in the world that has taken this step to integrate technologies into a platform that becomes turnkey.
Talk me through the key technologies you offer airports.
We have created the world’s only true indoor satellite platform that provides the insights, analytics, engagement and connectivity that the IoT is built around. Our SMRT Sensor measures position (XYZ coordinates), as opposed to mere presence. This is crucial for our clients; knowing which store a consumer is going to or which security line they approach is so much more valuable than simply knowing what wing of a building they are in. With microzone video analytics, operators can provide real- time queue wait times to their customers, as well as determining display and product success.
How do your new updated SMRT Sensors fit into your portfolio of analytics technologies?
Our updated SMRT Sensor enables the monitoring of specific passenger movements and adapts to real-time changes in the indoor environment such as line changes, lighting and other uncontrollable circumstances that cause competing systems to be ineffective and inaccurate.
The SMRT Adaptive Video Analytics (AVA) software provides a proven 98% accuracy rate in counting people and monitoring wait times in crowded and unorganised spaces such as airports. The software’s ability to deliver accurate wait times to airport operations managers at check-in, passport control and baggage screening, for example, and to use smart flight information displays and mobile devices to communicate wait times to passengers ensures a positive passenger experience.
Can you tell me a little about the importance of the beacons?
Our clients have the opportunity to take advantage of beacons; iBeacon through Apple and now Google’s Eddystone Beacon. If airports want to use those technologies – to engage personally with their customers who have downloaded an app, provide ‘blue-dot’ way-finding or connect with people who have opted in to be engaged with – our platform enables the functionality. We provide data, reports and information from which clients can glean insight. And, once we have those insights and our clients have a way to personally connect with their customers, we can provide the platform to allow them to do that.
How do you think Mexia technologies enhance passenger experience?
When passengers enter an airport, they want to know what gate their flight is leaving from, how to get there and how long that will take. Mexia technology can provide accurate information directly and personally to individual passengers. Our use of beacons (iBeacon, Placedge and Google Eddystone) allows operators to connect directly with consumers and provide offers that relate to their position and history. The sensor is also equipped with enterprise-level Wi-Fi at 802.11AC, to give the best connection possible.
Who are some of your main clients and what have been their responses to adopting your technology?
We are working with an airport client in Cyprus who is reducing passenger wait times at security to improve the passenger experience at Larnaca and Pafos Airports. The client is able to do this through optimised staff management, using our data.
This decreased wait time will also add to consumers’ available shopping time in retail and translate to increased spend per passenger. It will also help to create a less anxious passenger experience, as travellers will know approximately how long it will take them to get through security in real time.
We have also recently completed installations in Belfast International, Liverpool and Cork Airports, with many more to come in the near future.
